KHARTOUM, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The Sudanese government and the United Nations failed to reach an agreement on the deployment of UN peacekeeping forces in Sudan's western Darfur region as a special UN envoy wrapped up a visit to the country on Thursday.

    Lakhdar Brahimi, the special envoy of UN Secretary General KofiAnnan, arrived in Khartoum on Tuesday to persuade Sudan to accept UN takeover of the current African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

    The UN Security Council adopted a resolution on May 16 giving the Sudanese government a week to let in an assessment team to carry out preparations for the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur.

    Brahimi told a press conference following a meeting with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Thursday that the Sudanese government had agreed to receive a joint UN-AU assessment team to evaluate requirements for a possible deployment of international peacekeeping forces in Darfur.

    "In the coming days, this joint mission of the UN and the AU will start with detailed and wide-ranging consultations in Khartoum," Brahimi said.

    The team will also travel to Darfur to assess the additional needs of the AU peacekeeping force, which must be immediately strengthened to enable the force to monitor the implementation of Darfur peace agreement signed between Khartoum and a main Darfur rebel faction on May 5, he said.

    He added that the joint team would undertake an assessment of all the requirements for a possible transition of the peacekeeping mission in Darfur from the AU to the UN.

    He noted that the activities of the joint team in Sudan will be undertaken without prejudice to the future decisions that the Sudanese government, the AU and the UN may take on the deployment of international peacekeepers in Darfur.

    "The primary purpose of the UN in Darfur has always been, and continues to be to help the region recover and re-establish peace and stability for the benefit of all its inhabitants," Brahimi stressed.

    He said that the world body was keen to help the Sudanese government and the people of Darfur successfully implement the Darfur peace agreement by using all the resources at its disposal. "This will mean a multidimensional presence in Darfur, covering humanitarian assistance in addition to implementing the security aspects of the agreement," he added.

    The Sudanese government, however, has refused a military role of the UN in Darfur, affirming that the peace agreement did not provide in its security arrangements any role for the UN or any other party except the AU.

    Foreign Minister Lam Akol said earlier in the day that following Brahimi's talks in Khartoum, the UN envoy had acknowledged that any role for the world body in Darfur had to be coincided with the Darfur peace agreement.

    The foreign minister reiterated that his government would not accept the deployment of international forces under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, which authorizes sanctions or even the use of force if the Security Council resolution is not complied with. "Any international forces, in case that their deployment is agreed upon, should be forces for monitoring the implementation of the peace agreement rather than forces for imposing the peace," Akol said.

    "We want to cooperate with the UN and we have no hostility towards it," he said, adding that the government did not deny a UN role but wanted to give the AU a chance to collect fruits of the works it had done in Darfur.

    AU Peace and Security Council has agreed in principle to handover its underfunded and ill-equipped 7,800-strong peacekeeping force in Darfur to the UN, though Khartoum strongly opposed. The AU peacekeeping force has been deployed in Darfur following the government and Darfur rebels reached a cease-fire agreement in April 2004.

    Tens of thousands of people have been killed and about one million displaced in Darfur since armed revolts erupted in February 2003. Enditem